“Looks like it.”
“I don’t need the help.” His face settled into an expression that I took to mean he was listening. “It’s nice of you, but please just let me do my job. You’ve got other places you need to be. You don’t need to be here.”
He nodded, this time his voice soft. “What if I want to be here?” I started shaking my head, panic filling my insides, but he went on with his eyes dark, and sweet, and slowly dripping an IV full of honey into my veins. “I go home to an empty fridge and a TV. There’s never anything good on. But the nights here are wild.”
I laughed, in spite of myself. “No, they’re not.”
“They are. During the day, there are so many rules. I have to wear a tie and be polite all the time. It’s exhausting.”
“There are still rules here at night.”
“You just told me my shift was over. There’s a new girl running this place now.” His hands were in his pockets, easily countering my remarks, looking sexy and confident and dangerous all at once.
“This new girl loves rules. Now shut up and let me finish. Rule number two is—“
“Did somebody here order a DoorDash?”
We looked toward the doorway, where a tall, thin high schooler with chains on his pants and a beanie on his head held two large black plastic bags bursting at the seams.
I was about to tell him no, when Duke said, “Right here.”
If Duke noticed my suspicious glare pointed his way as he sauntered over to accept the bags of what smelled like some really delicious, sweet and garlicky Chinese food, he didn’t acknowledge it. When the delivery boy had gone, Duke finally met my gaze, a hint of a smirk teasing the corners of his mouth.
“Well, shoot. Looks like they gave me way too much food for just one person.”
16
It was an art form,really, how Duke could talk me into doing things outside of my tidy existence. Out of my comfort zone. My only defense was that sometimes a girl gets tired of trying to resist Duke’s charms.
Also, the smell of Chinese food was irresistible. Nobody in their right mind would say no. That was a fact.
The office building had a rooftop I had no idea about. I’d never gone higher than the fifteenth floor. As I followed Duke into the elevator, allowing him to lead me farther and farther away from my cleaning cart, the more my fingers clawed at my palms.
“Actually, I don’t have time for this,” I said while we both watched the numbers tick higher toward twenty-four, the top floor of the building.
He turned his gaze on me. “You don’t have time for dinner?”
“I always have time for dinner,” I protested.
“Great.” He went back to watching the number creep higher and higher.
“But my dinner can be a bowl of cereal scarfed down in two seconds standing over the kitchen sink.” I threw him a pleading glance when the elevator dinged and the door opened. “I don’t have time for this. I’m going back down.”
Duke blocked the door with his foot and turned to face me. “Nora.” He waited until my panicked eyes met his. “We can take as much time as you want up here. If it’s two minutes”—he shrugged—“it’s two minutes. If it’s two hours, that’s fine with me too. It would just be a shame to miss this view.”
Even as my heart rate slowed at his words, I couldn’t help but be wary. Those eyes were a bit too deliberately casual. “That’s your only reason for bringing us up here? Because this girl still has a lot to do downstairs.”
“I know.” He nodded, and I watched with growing alarm as a lazy grin appeared on his face. “But every once in a while, this girl blows off the rules, and I love having a front-row seat when it happens.”
I sighed, feeling myself cave at his warm brown eyes. “Five minutes.”
He removed his leg blocking the exit and motioned for me to go in front of him. “After you.”
There was a stairwell to the left of the elevator that led us to the rooftop. Duke opened the door, and the warm summer air hitting my face had me taking in a deep breath. In an instant, I could almost feel the day melting away. Purple and orange clouds streaked across the Salt Lake skyline. A breeze blew at the wisps of hair along my cheeks as Duke led me toward two metal folding chairs facing the west that looked like they’d seen a few years—and windstorms.
He plopped down in one of the chairs. “Welcome to my thinking spot.”
I pulled the other chair a few inches away from his before sitting down next to him. “So, those times when Mike and Ryan are looking everywhere for you, this is where you’re hiding out?”
